How to Apply 360° Marketing Using a WAM Case Study

Launching a marketing campaign today is like conducting an orchestra. Every instrument has to follow the same beat and melody for the music not only to sound good but for the audience to feel the excitement. If we apply this analogy to our industry, it means that we have to use all the tools at our disposal (SEO, social media, Paid Media, and so on) in a cohesive, unified message for the message to reach the consumer at the right time using the right channel. This philosophy is what we call 360° Marketing. 

What is 360° Marketing?

360° Marketing is an integrated marketing plan or campaign with unified, cohesive messaging across all the various touchpoints a consumer has with a brand. It subsequently uses all the available resources to connect with their target audience, and subtly drives them towards buying or contracting a product or service. 

We use the 360-degree concept to transmit the idea that it should be thought of as a circle where we take advantage of all resources and that every action should be considered as part of the bigger picture. 360° Marketing uses all marketing disciplines to create comprehensive strategies that deliver the message we want to use to acquire customers in unison. 

At WAM, we deem it vital to give all our projects this 360° focus. Not only does this perspective afford us a cohesive customer experience; it also makes for a much more pleasant one. That’s the WAM way, as we’ve shared in our Marjal and IE Exponential Learning case studies but also our internal campaigns. We’ll now break down how we carried out our latest tourism campaign that led us to achieve fantastic results. 

A practical example of how to apply 360° Marketing 

The tourism industry is one of WAM’s sectors of expertise, and we’ve managed to achieve several success stories. Our CEO is also the Managing Director of AR Hotels and has an extensive track record in the industry. We know the business, its needs, and the challenges that await the big players; that’s why we want to help them. We put together a 360° marketing strategy capable of reaching our target audience, the management in tourism companies, to spread the message we sought to transmit.  

How did we do it? We know the sector’s in a critical moment of change that’s generating a lot of uncertainty. That’s why we developed a report where we carried out an in-depth analysis of the current context, as well as the challenges they face. We also shared several trends that will be key to the future of the tourism industry. In other words, we created a valuable piece of content that satisfied a need that would serve as the focus for our entire strategy. 

Once the report was completed, we put everything else into motion. We gathered together all the managers for each department within WAM to design an action plan to reach our end-goal. Branding and design worked on their concept, SEO defined the report’s positioning; Social Media determined the posting strategy, etc. Thanks to the teamwork demonstrated, we put all the pieces together to create a 360° Marketing strategy. The strategy employed all our tools to our advantage to transmit our message and reach our target audience. 

1. We created a microsite

We created a microsite to position and favor downloads of the report. We thought of it as a “summary” of the report in sections to provide extra information that would grab the user’s attention once they landed on the microsite. 

We enlisted the help of the following departments in its creation: 

• UX: in charge of designing the wireframes.
• Design: was responsible for giving the initial sketches color, form, and the WAM brand touch.
• Web Development: the team ultimately entrusted with making it a reality. 

2. We optimized for SEO

We have a piece of content, a microsite, and now we need to make sure people see it. That’s why we carried out an SEO strategy that would let us position ourselves in critical searches for us. We used terms such as tourism trends, digital tourism marketing trends, tourism marketing, and more. 

To achieve it, we carried out:

• Keyword Research to focus our content with the keywords boasting the most potential. 
• On-Page SEO optimizing pages for the keywords we chose.
• Internal linking of blog posts and webpages related to tourism. 

3. We deployed Paid Media

While the organic part is critical, it never hurts to give a campaign a little push with Paid Media. As part of our 360° strategy, we selected the best platforms and segments to gain the most visibility, and above all, leads. The team determined the ads we would launch and where we would publish: 

• Google: announce in the Search area for specific keywords. 
• Facebook and Instagram: sponsored posts for industry professionals. 
• LinkedIn: InMail campaign to industry professionals. 

4. We also spread the word on Social Media

We implemented a strategy to disseminate the report on social media. We not only used WAM’s own media, but we also employed WAM CEO Giorgio Ascolese’s profiles to have a greater reach and better fit our target audience. We also created a page within our Company Page for users to become acquainted with the report. 

5. We used the blog as the pillar of our Content Marketing strategy

We gave support to the project on the blog by generating related content and linking to the microsite to favor its positioning. We also spread them on social media to expand their impact. 

6. We also deployed Email Marketing

Another one of our secret weapons is our database and the contacts registered inside them. We decided to take advantage of them using an email marketing strategy. We created an email workflow using Pardot so that all the users who downloaded the report received additional useful content to them turn them into qualified leads. 

7. We included offline actions too 

In this campaign that was of great importance for the firm, we decided to go a step further and hold an event presenting it to move beyond the digital world. We counted on IE Business School and the IE Tourism Club, which is a key industry player, as well as different experts to participate in an exciting debate. 

8. We also used PR

We also had help from our PR team to gain media exposure. We decided to achieve it with a mix of organic PR and Branded Content. We selected media outlets, sent out a press release, invited journalists, and brought together all the necessary tools to ensure we achieved press mentions. 

What results did this 360° Marketing campaign give us? 

The campaign lasted for six months, and during that time, we achieved excellent results. Here are some of the highlights: 

Leads and business opportunities 

• 246 leads through email marketing campaigns 
• +2,000 report downloads through the microsite. 

Brand exposure

• 6,000 users, 7,000 sessions, and +1,600 downloads through the Paid Media campaigns. 
• +50 press mentions.
• +13,500 people reached on social media with an average engagement rate of 5.25%. 
• +2,200 plays of a video published on our social media accounts
• 4% conversion rate of the traffic generated through social media. 

A 360° vision and teamwork have been crucial for launching this campaign. Conducting this orchestra where many different “musicians” play is part of our day-to-day operations. We organized status meetings with the department heads to track the campaign’s progress, and we sent out periodic reports highlighting the performance achieved at that time. While we have to put many pieces together, the final product for both the consumer and the brand prove that the effort will be worth it.  

At WAM, we use a 360° approach in all of our projects. We first start by creating a personalized roadmap tailored to our clients’ specific business goals. We then use the quantitative and qualitative data from that initial analysis to make data-based decisions for all our actions. As we build and release the solutions that will best attract your audience in all the possible touchpoints where they are, we’ll continually measure and optimize your plan for the best results possible. We trust in this process and firmly believe that it’s key to the future of marketing.